Stephanie worked hard at all that she did and tried her best at all that she took on from an early age.  Her senior year of high school she attended College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls and was very involved in the music program there.  Music was a very special part of her life and she wanted to teach upon graduation but after meeting music teachers in college in Maryland who had come back for different degrees she realized that music may not be what she should work towards either even though she truly enjoyed the opportunities she had playing the french horn and being involved in the music department..

A friend from Buhl High School band caught up with Stephanie while he was in Buhl.  He was a couple years older and  was attending Northwest Nazarene College as it was called back then and invited her to come try out for the Halleluiah Brass ensemble as they needed a french horn player.  She did drive to Nampa and tried out and was accepted.

A good friend of ours had a social work degree and recommended that direction for Stephanie when she was a senior in high school.  That ended up being her major and the opportunities she had after graduation were quite amazing and each quite different as she worked with various groups of people in very different circumstances. 

About 20  years ago, Stephanie and an associate decided to attend a grant writing class in Boise. When the opportunity arose to ask questions, she found out that it usually takes several submissions before being accepted.   They gave it their best shot.  I'm not sure after submission how long it took to receive an answer but they did receive the $25,000 they were asking for on the first try.  Along with the $25,000, they also received a paid trip to Washington DC to accept the award.

As we know even then, $25,000 wasn't much for the project they would begin but it did pay rent for a while and she was also very happy to have enough money to purchase a copy machine - a piece of equipment that would be very important in the months to come.

Many know the rest of the story better than us as she has lived a very busy life totally committed to the agency and helping others in any way she could.